Foliage Season.

10-7-10 VERMONT: We came up yesterday in a soaker from Connecticut to Vermont that continued over night and stopped about noon today. There was already plenty of precip here. I had put the rain gauge away to avoid an early frost cracking it, but a bucket I had left out was almost full. According to NOAA we had almost seven inches of rain here in the past two weeks.The pond was full and draining, the little pond which had been dry is almost full, and the usual low spots are soggy.

The leaves are about at peak for foliage color. As usual some trees are bare, some in full color and some still green depending on species, exposure, elevation and latitude. Vermonters say that the best color follows warm days, cool nights, but without hard frosts. That’s what we have had, but it’s not as glorious as in other years. Yesterday in the rain and mist the colors were muted, but today after the sun came out, the colors were bright—no surprise, of course.

I started fall wrap-up, clean-up, put-away and take-down. I pulled all the plant supports-stakes, hoops, ties, poles, the electric fence around the veggies, the tomato cages, the hummingbird feeder, beetle traps, hoses. Tomorrow I’ll get the flower bed border guards.

New Blooms: cimicfuga, late monkshood.


Barn bracketed by maples.

Red Maple. Very red maple today.